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27/02/2011

[TOTW] Games and Addiction 101 - How far will you say that enough is enough?

Made by
Francisco S.

Games - "activity engaged in for diversion or amusement "

Addiction - "continued involvement with a substance or activity despite the negative consequences associated with it."

How can these two words mix and cause extensive damage to someone who might be close to you or even yourself? Find out after the break.

Gaming, as we know it, is something for us to have fun, to enjoy alone or with friends of familly with the purpose of killing time. Remember when you were a kid and you had your cardboard games like Monopoly and Risk? Some of us would spend hours just playing, socializing and laughing for others miss deeds, but when we had enough we would just stop playing and something else, there was a threshold your brain couldn't pass, the fine line between having fun or just getting annoyed with it, the latter with the easy solution of stopping.

Nowadays we find ourselves in a technological meca, we have consoles, computer and other types of media entertainment, too diversified to talk all of them and much replacing those old board games but also changing how we play the game, fun started is substituted by frustration: Actually the games frustrate more the player than never before, either in the form of glitch or bug that just makes you to throw your remote or keyboard to the never ending recesses of hell with a couple of magical swearwords, or in the form of highly competitive online gaming, those "high-skilled" players will kill you faster then you can log in to the servers. But the main problem is that we get addicted to these games, and our youth is easily alienated by this addiction.

Last week, there was an article about a person who killed himself by playing full 3 days in a Lan House, he disregarded all his personal biological urges, mainly sleeping, to play. Something is not right here, people today get more plugged like casino machines then never before, most of today's youth (not all) isolate themselves socially and physically to complete those special achievements, or to compete worldwide for the n.º1 place or to make your guild n.º1 server-wide. Addiction is running rampart in the gaming world, as psychologists are already researching about this strange case, and parents are more and more concerned which in turn are seduced by some of the bad media that is shown in TV but how to control the wildfire between small control to obsessive zealotry.

Companies and the industry themselves is now praying on the consumer like vultures on fresh meat in the desert, we now have camps to detox gamers but on the other side free-to-play MMO's and FPS, we have children control on consoles and computers but most parents or relatives don't know much about this misterious feature so its not enforced, looking at the pro's and con's of the neverending fight against obsessive addiction how will this end?

What is your opinion about the current state of addiction in the gaming world?

About Addict3d

Addict3d first started as a regular blog reviewing the newest games and discussing themes that occurred in the game industry and between communities. Although it was its main objective in doing so, the blog evolved into an idea of helping small developers and fan made projects evolve.

By doing so, we have created a support for these projects and even created an environment for tournaments to be shared with communities alike.